Pages

Sunday, 2 August 2015

Training in China: Beijing Blog

So as it turns out the place I was training was actually an outer location for Guo Yan's summer training camp. After a week there Guo Yan invited me to train with the Beijing team for my last day here. I packed all my stuff in a hurry after training and took the train to Beijing West to see my old coach, Sun Yang. I hadn't seen her for 3 years so it was really nice to catch up and have Korean BBQ. The next day I took a taxi and tried to find a hotel.

It took 4 hotels and a lot of walking. The first had the Chinese National Team staying and so foreigners were not permitted to stay. The next was booked out, third again no foreigners and the 4th was more expensive. The result? I managed to book a great room (expensive in China, relatively cheap in USD).

I was invited to lunch by Guo Yan and had some amazing Beijing duck and tried some new things (duck heart and wasabi duck feet). It was a really pleasant experience. Yan told me she may come to Chengdu also which would be cool.

So I checked out the actual center at Longtan Lake which is where I will train tomorrow. It's been really hot here and the thunderstorms at night have made it humid as hell so all the walking around has drained me completely.

Guo Yan's Young Shine Table Tennis Club

Despite the heat I took some time to check out the Temple of Heaven which I am going to do a separate post on soon!

All in all a day of great experiences and no doubt more to come in the next week!